Candy from Babies
by SheriffsGrl
Summary: Wallace and Mac discover that a bestselling novel is based on Veronica. Does she know and who is the mysterious author? FutureFic
1. Chapter 1

_**Disclaimer:**_ Veronica Mars and the characters therein do not belong to me. Neither do the Oprah Book Club or the New York Times bestseller list.

Chapter 1

The number was still stored in his phone. "I really hope she hasn't changed her number," he thought. It had been 2 years since they'd last spoken. No time for worrying about that now, he pressed send and waited as a phone rang. "Well, it's not a disconnected number. That's a start."

"Hello?" "Mac, it's Wallace. How are you?" "I'm well, and it's nice to hear from you, but is it wrong if I ask why you're calling at Noon on a Wednesday?" "Yeah, I know it's been a long time. I'm sorry for calling out of the blue like this and bothering you at work, but you're the first person I thought to call. I don't have much time to talk. My flight to Johannesburg leaves in 45 minutes, and they're about to start boarding."

"What's going on Wallace? Is everything okay?"

"I think so, but I just had a weird experience and I need to you confirm that I'm not loosing my mind." "Okay, but you are scaring me a bit."

"Have you read, 'Candy from Babies'?" "I never pegged you as a member of Oprah's book club, Wallace. How on earth is this important?" "I know, I know, but I needed a book at JFK and there was a giant display in the bookstore, so I decided to take a chance. But back to my question, have you read it?" "No, I haven't. I've heard some of the buzz, but that's it, why?"

"Okay, I don't want to bias you with my conspiracy theories. Will you do me a favor and buy a copy today and then send me an email when you're finished. I won't have much cell phone access outside of cities, but I will have access to e-mail. I still have the same Gmail account, do you have that address?"

"I do, Wallace, and I'll go buy the book, but you are really freaking me out. Are you sure you're okay? Where are you now?" "I am, Mac, and there's no need to panic. I'm at Heathrow after flying in from New York. Hey, they're boarding my flight, I have to go. Please send me an e-mail in a few days. Thank you, bye." "Bye, Wallace."

Mac hung up the phone thoroughly confused. "What on earth could be in this book that's so important to Wallace?" she thought. Well, she should get out of the office more anyway. It wasn't healthy to eat at her desk everyday; a little sunlight would do her good. She could walk down to Whole Foods and make a salad at their salad bar for lunch, and then hit the bookstore around the corner. She looked at the clock again and decided lunch could wait for another hour, because she needed to get back to her current programming puzzle. She wasn't paid to ponder Wallace's mysterious request.

--

"Oh my God," Mac thought for the eighth or ninth time that afternoon. She was only a third of the way through the book and she knew why Wallace had called her. She hadn't been able to put it down since sitting in the park to eat her salad and flip through the book. She'd called her office and taken the afternoon off. Hooray for personal leave. She wanted to call Wallace now, but it was only 4 hours since he'd called her. He'd still be on the plane. She might as well keep reading, but it was definitely time for a more comfortable perch. She'd head home and pick up something for dinner along the way, knowing she wasn't going to want to leave the house until she'd finished the book.

"Finished," she whispered as she put down the book later that night. It was inescapable. The current Oprah Book Club selection, New York Times bestseller, and mystery/thriller hit of the summer, "Candy from Babies," and its main character were based on Veronica.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Disclaimer:**__ Veronica Mars and the characters therein do not belong to me. Neither do the Oprah Book Club or the New York Times bestseller list._

Chapter 2

"Of course, there are lots of mystery novels out there. A fictional female PI isn't uncommon anymore, not 35 years after Kinsey Milhone and V. I. Warshawski both appeared in the early 1980s," Mac thought trying to convince herself that what she knew wasn't true. The plot wasn't a case Veronica had solved, it wasn't as obvious as that, but the characteristics and mannerisms were too much to ignore. "Rachael" even spoke in Veronica's distinctive style, sometimes in exact phrases Mac remembered. Taken together with Rachael's painful teen and college years that were hinted at, and sure to be featured more prominently in the foreshadowed future novels, Mac knew it couldn't just be a coincidence.

Mac began to think back to what she had heard about this book before Wallace called her. She remembered hearing the unusual circumstances surrounding its selection for Oprah's book club. Never before had a living author declined to appear on her show to be interviewed about their book. The author of "Candy from Babies", Jacob Harris, had put out a statement through his publishing company saying that he was delighted to be selected by Oprah, but he wished to maintain his privacy and would not personally participate in any part of the book launch and publicity tour. In fact his book contract with Random House contained an ironclad clause to that effect. Oprah graciously decided to promote the book anyway, because she loved the main character and the writing.

In her research, Mac found that the press was tantalized by the mystery of the author, and had quickly discovered that Jacob Harris was an alias, but they were not able to determine his real identity. With no new information, the press was distracted by the next breaking story and moved on. Mac, of course, simply took this as a challenge. It had been too long since she'd put her hacking skills to use.

--

Sighing, Mac decided to take a break. She'd managed to hack into Random House's servers fairly easily, but they didn't tell her much of anything. All of the contracts were made out to Jacob Harris and it was clear from documents and e-mail that no one at Random House had ever met him in person. All communication was through e-mail (a Gmail account that would get her nowhere). The author had even declined to review the final printed page proofs so as not to provide a physical address, and had reviewed a PDF version instead. She thought she'd found a promising lead when she stumbled onto the plan for payment of royalties, but was disappointed after discovering it led to an offshore bank account. Hacking into a publishing company's servers was bad enough, but there was no way she was going to risk getting caught hacking into a foreign bank account. It was time to write to Wallace and come up with a plan.

"Hi Wallace, I hope your flight was uneventful. I read the book last night and yes, it's clearly based on Veronica. I dug around online trying to figure out who Jacob Harris is, but the alias was created very carefully and I don't see an obvious way of cracking it without risking federal jail time. I guess the next step is deciding which of us is going to tell Veronica. Write back soon. Mac."

"Mac, thank you! I _knew_ it had to be V. It couldn't be random that Rachael knows all the words to 'The Big Lebowski,' and loves unicorns. This is just so weird. Do you think she's decided to write mysteries in addition to fighting crime? Just because the author's alias is male, doesn't mean that it's really a man. I have a few days here in Jo'burg before I travel to Malawi; the time difference is only 9 hours between here and San Francisco. I'll call your cell around 9 pm tonight and try to catch you on your lunch break. I think we'd better talk a bit before we tell V. Wallace."

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AN: Thanks to everyone who read the first chapter and a special thanks my reviewers. I can't tell you what a thrill it is to see the traffic stats, and the individual feedback was fantastic. I did get a specific comment about the dialog formatting, so you'll see a format change in Chapter 3, which will hopefully improve readability (you would have seen it here, but there's no dialog...). I truly appreciate all feedback, particularly because this is my first story. Thank you!


	3. Chapter 3

_**Disclaimer:**__ Veronica Mars and the characters therein do not belong to me. _

_Recap: Wallace suspects that a book he read is based on Veronica and her life. He calls Mac, who reads the book and agrees with his theory. Mac tries to identify the author by hacking into the publisher's servers, but is unable to determine more than that the author's name is a well-constructed alias. After exchanging emails, Wallace makes plans to call Mac from Africa._

Chapter 3

Mac grabbed her phone on the first ring, "Wallace?"

"Hey, Mac. It's great to talk to you again."

"You too, Wallace. Do you have any idea who could be behind this?"

"I almost have too many ideas, Mac. However, I've been thinking about one thing in particular since I wrote you earlier. Unicorns."

"Come again, Wallace. Did you say unicorns?"

"Yeah, I know it's crazy, but while lots of people know about Veronica's sleuth prowess and her love of South Park and the Dude, most people wouldn't know about the unicorn joke."

"You know, that's a good point, Wallace. Obviously we both know and we didn't write it."

"Uh-huh."

"And despite your plausible theory that the author might not be male, I really don't think Veronica is writing this. It's not that I don't think she's talented, I just can't imagine her wanting to write about herself. She's too private for that."

"You're right, Mac. I don't think I ever really thought this could be V."

"So, who do you think has enough knowledge of Veronica to write this? Her dad? Logan? Duncan?"

"Whoa, Mac. That's a lot to process all at once. I don't think there's any way it's Mr. Mars. He wouldn't do that to her and while he's a great sheriff and PI, I don't think he has the literary styling to be a novelist."

"Well, he did write that book about Aaron Echolls and Lilly Kane."

"Yeah, but Mac, that was non-fiction and he wrote it with that reporter."

"That's true. Well, what about Duncan or Logan?"

"Duncan, wow. I haven't heard anything about him since he ran off with his baby, and that was what, over 10 years ago. Do you think he's still in touch with V?"

"I have no idea. She never wanted to talk about that, but Duncan never seemed to really get Veronica as an investigator. He still thought of her as the bubbly, preppy girl she was before Lilly's murder. Did he even know the real Veronica well enough to be able to write this?"

"True, Mac. Does that mean we think it's Logan?"

"I don't know if I'd go that far, Wallace. There have to be other people in Veronica's life that know her well. I certainly don't know all of her friends now. Maybe someone at her work?"

"Mac, you know V. We both do, she isn't going to tell anyone about her past willingly. And even if she did, you don't learn every nuance of a story from a retelling, as opposed to living it."

"It sounds like we're back to Logan then, Wallace. But that isn't really our main problem now. How are we going to tell Veronica and which one of us is going to do it?"

"Oh, Mac. I hate to do this to you, but can you tell her? I've got 2 days of meetings here, then 2 weeks in Malawi, before more meetings here in Jo'burg, finally returning to DC in 3 weeks. I can follow up with e-mail while I'm gone and then I'll promise to call her as soon as I'm back stateside."

"I understand, Wallace. Of course I'll tell her, and I'll let you know how it goes. It's been really nice talking to you. I miss this. We have to catch up when you're back in DC. I want to hear about everything you're doing in Africa."

"That's a great idea, Mac. We should get together soon. I've always hated the way we drifted apart after graduation. I know it happens, and that it's neither of our fault, well, you know. I don't want to get all girl on you."

"Well, we wouldn't want that.," Mac said with a smile. "I guess I better go and figure out how to tell Veronica about this. Take care of yourself."

"You too, Mac. Bye."

--

Mac put her phone down and her head on her desk. Had it really been only a little more than 24 hours since Wallace called her from Heathrow? She'd only gotten 2 hours of sleep last night, or rather, this morning, before having to haul herself into work. She couldn't call in sick after ducking out yesterday afternoon. Now she had to tell Veronica that a bestselling novel had been based on her and possibly written by her ex-boyfriend—the one and only Logan Echolls. Ugh, she was too tired for this.

No, she had to focus. This had to be done in person. There was no way she could try to explain this to Veronica over the phone, it was only fair to be there for the inevitable fallout. Better sooner than later too, she wondered if Veronica was free this weekend. Mac looked up flights online and saw she could take the 2 pm flight out of San Francisco and arrive in Chicago at 8 pm or the 6 pm and arrive at Midnight. Great, either miss a second afternoon of work in 3 days or not arrive until Saturday morning. Well, it might not matter anyway if Veronica was on a case or had plans. She wouldn't know until she called.

Veronica picked up on the third ring, "Mac Attack, what's the haps?"

"Hi Veronica. I was wondering if you're free for an emergency girls weekend."

"Is everything okay, Mac?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, but I need to talk to you about something and it'll be easier in person."

"Well it just so happens that I wrapped up a case today. I have paperwork to do in the office tomorrow, but I'm free as a bird this weekend. Now when you say girls weekend, you're not planning to make us go shopping and get our nails done are you? Because if you are, then I'm really worried."

Laughing, Mac replied, "No, I promise, no shopping. However, I am going to send you a little pre-arrival package. Open it when you get home from work and I'll be at your place by 1 am."

"How very mysterious, Mac. Do you want me to pick you up at the airport?"

"No, I'll take a cab. I'm on the 6 pm flight, so like I said, I should be there by 1 am."

"Great, see you then, Mac."

"Bye, Veronica."

Whew. That was easier than Mac thought it might be. The plan to send Veronica the book and give her a few hours to read at least part of it before Mac arrived came to her on the fly. Mac quickly ordered the book online and scheduled it for express delivery to Veronica's apartment in the morning. It would be waiting for her when she arrived home Friday night. Mac's tickets were purchased a few minutes later. A few more hours of work and she could go home and pack and, most importantly, get some sleep. It would be a long night once she arrived in Chicago.

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AN: I hope the reformatted dialog was easier to read in this chapter. Please let me know. All feedback appreciated—positive and negative. Thanks for reading!


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